I awoke to birds chirping and flying around the room, I called for Vickey. "Why am I waking up like Snow White?" She started giggling "just trying something new" as a bird landed on her finger and chirped. "I feel like I should be looking for bird poop. I don't mind the sound but the actual birds are a little much". She made the birds fly around my head like the loonie toons cartoons giggling the whole time.
The birds disappeared as we got up and stretched, "I kind of like them," Lisa said.
"Well when you sleep alone you are more than welcome to them" I giggled. We all went to the bathroom and I got the shower. Their fur takes too long to dry so they went to the refresher.
"Vickey, are our guests up yet?" She appeared and smiled "yes they are sir and they have been up for a while now. I believe they are eating it's 09:30 for them". We grabbed a quick bite and headed over.
They came to the door bright eyed and bushy tailed ready to go for the day. Jude started the conversation "so tell me about your little air force you have been running". I looked at him "not much to tell, the pilots of those craft are using it like a training mission while they learn to fly". They looked at me and Ann spoke up "can we meet the pilots?"
"Sure," I said and asked Vickey to call the kits. I looked at them "the pilots are Lisa's brother and sisters". The door opened and they ran to me with a chorus of PAPA. that got us into the story of my blunder during their birth.
We were talking about them not having names yet when Ann asked about the pilots coming. "These are the pilots" the shocked look I received made me laugh. "These are the pilots?" said Ann "how old are they?" I looked at her and smiled "they are under 2 months". Jude spoke up "you have to be 16 in Canada to get a pilots license, you have children flying spaceships". I was laughing at this point because Ann kept looking back and forth between me and the kits. She looked at the girls "Is that normal?" That got them on the story of the parasites on the planet and how their intelligence is formed in groups.
Ann said "so you have no idea how smart they will get". The girls shook their heads. "Fascinating" she added. "I was a teacher and took early childhood development in school. I imagine a whole group of them being raised together would be amazing to see".
The girls looked at me and Ann caught it and smiled. "I guess we weren't the only ones doing baby talk on the ship" she giggled. The girls blushed and she caught that to. Her eyes got huge. "OMG are you?" The girls smiled and shyly nodded.
I didn't want to mention my aura "the nanobots can tell when you are pregnant".
Ann looked at me "that's amazing,what else can they tell you". I looked at her "they can tell you almost anything. You can use any monitor to bring up your stats if you want to see. Just ask for your health data". She took off like a bolt for the office wanting to see like a little kid.
Jude said to me "that is the best sleep I've ever had". I smiled at him "the beds have a sleep function to help with that".
That's when we heard the scream and the thud, we all ran to the office to find Ann on the floor. The display was showing a drop in blood pressure and the display read shock.
Jude was instantly beside her and I apologized and picked her up and took her to a medbed. Even as I put her down she was coming to "lay still you fainted" I started the scan. She sat up "I fainted, I was just so overwhelmed when I saw" she stopped talking and started smiling. Jude was beside his wife and holding her hand with a questioning look on his face "what is it honey please tell me?"
She reached up and caressed his cheek and he looked scared. "Look at the scans and tell me what you see," she said. He looked at the screen scared for what he would find. 10 seconds passed as he studied the scan, his eyes darting all over till he found it.
His eyes got wide as he pointed to the display "it says, OMG, I need to sit down". He sat in the chair as I looked at the display, there I found it in her abdomen. A little red dot flashing and labeled Viable Embryo.
She was off the bed and sitting on her husband's lap kissing him. Then stood and hugged my girls "what was your scan like". Cora took this one "we haven't done them yet''. Lisa nodded at that "we just haven't had the time". Ann smiled "well no time like the present". The girls looked at me "it's up to you if you want to". They didn't even look back and jumped up on the bed and I started the scan.
Ann looked at them like someone looking for a secret. She stopped and squinted then her mouth fell open and I could see her counting. "12. Please tell me I'm reading this wrong". I started to laugh "no its accurate".
"You're going to have 12 kids at once, I need to sit down" she flopped in the chair. "OMG I can believe 12 at once. I babysit for 2 hours and I need a nap, OMG I'm pregnant". We all started to giggle and Cora got her a drink of water.
I said to my guests "make you a deal, you keep our secret and we will keep yours" they both smiled and nodded. Jude stood and took my hand "deal".
"Now let's get out of here and go on some rides". Everyone dried their eyes and we made our way to the flight deck. There were 6 fighters behind my ship so I looked at my crew and said "it looks like we have an escort today". As we walked in front of each fighter we waved and they would tilt back and forth in response.
I looked at my girls "they amaze me more and more every day, I can't imagine what 12 is going to be like". I got shrugs in reply.
We took off and left the ship, the kits took up positions beside us. We flew by the ISS so my guests could take pics and enjoy the view. The flight was only 13 minutes then the kits went on with their mission. We circled the site and you could see nothing until Vickey was ready. We all watched as the cloak was dropped and the park appeared. The hologram didn't do it justice, from the center out it was 20 kilometers in every direction. We landed with a soft bump and exited the ship. There before us was an airport, I suppose it's a spaceport. There were gates all over the place and ours was labeled 65.
I saw a woman walking towards me, she was beautiful and blond. She walked to me confidently and extended her hand. "Hello captain I'm Sara" I know the handshake was a force field but I was shocked when it was warm. She stood proudly at about 167 cm ( 5'6") and dressed in a uniform I didn't recognize.
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She went to my wives and bowed "it's an honor to meet you" they smiled and took the compliment. I introduced the mayor and his wife and she greeted them warmly. A cart landed beside us and Sara gestured for us to board the craft. She took her place at the front facing us.
"I have a full tour for your captain" we took off. "This is the primary spaceport for the park, We can handle 50k a day with ease". We flew around the airport and it was massive. She continued "with all aircraft using VTOL we can add and subtract gates so we could double that if needed. Off to the left you will see a second spaceport for the colony".
Jude spun and looked at me "A colony?" I looked at him and waggled my eyebrows then put my finger to my lips then pointed at Sara.
She smiled and we went over the edge and we could see the windows to the rooms and robots milling about. Below was the park with all its glory, the hexagons each contained a ride but some were connected for bigger ones. The zoo took a third of the park and looked wild with tubes coming in and out.
Sara asked "is there anything you want to start with first". We all looked at one another "how about our guests decide". Jude looked at his wife "well dear what would you like?" She smiled and looked at all of us "after this morning lets start with the zoo". We all nodded and we were off.
The zoo was actually 2 zoos, one a duplicate of the other. There were all kinds of paths for walking and tours by bots and carts like the one we were in. We got a sit down guided tour that told us the types of animals we are looking at. We watched the funky looking animals from different galaxies and I wondered if they had AI. They would react to us and some would come right up to the cart.
Some were slimy, some looked like animals you could identify but that changed when they got closer. I noticed that 3 legs seem to be more common for running animals.
Sara would explain the atmospheres that would produce such creatures, scientists will love this.
She pointed at some creatures that blurred the line between animal and plant and said they are silicone based and sentient.
Before we knew it we were at the end of a 2 hour tour. Sara looked at me "I have enough animals on file that you would have to go through 20 times just to see the same animal twice".
"What type of rides do you want to see? I have lots of ride on rides that take advantage of the low gravity and many different VR experiences you can explore". I looked at my guests "what would you like to see?" The girls looked at one another and put their hands on their abdomens. Ann said "let's try VR", we all agreed and Sara set a course.
Sara landed in front of what looked like carnaval games and we got off the lift. "You chose what experience you want from the panel beside the door". My guests and wives went to the booths and looked back at me. "I work in VR all day, I'm going to talk to Sara. I'm going to ride the real rides". They all nodded and chose their adventure.
I looked at Sara "How are you settling in?" she smiled "I'm settling in quite well captain, from what I see im going to enjoy working for you. I have access to my previous incarnations and can learn from them and having a nice guy in charge is refreshing". I looked at her "I don't want you to just work for me, I want you to be happy". She smiled "I enjoy creating order out of the chaos but im used to a larger task. My original programming was meant for an entire planet".
"That's my point, I don't want you to be bored" she looked at me and smiled again. "Thank you for your concern and I promise to come to you if I get bored, the colony will keep me busy when it's done".
We chatted until my wives and guests appeared. My wives had their hair messed up "I can't believe you skydived for fun", I was shocked at their choice. "I got pretty good at it as well," I joked.
Jude and Ann were laughing as they walked toward us "that thing scared the shit out of me" he said. Ann added "I had to save him twice from the scary animals" she giggled. "Yea yea yea" he waved his hand laughing.
We spent the next few hours riding rides of all sorts, Jude and I were the only ones to get on the roller coasters. We will all rided out when we got back to the shuttle.
We took off and I called for Vicky "does she get lonely being the only one here?" she nodded at me. "Arrange for all the residents of Progress to come to the park and break it in". She nodded at me "consider it done".
We were headed towards the earth and Ann came to sit in the copilot's seat and looked at the earth. "Do you think you can save it?" I nodded "I believe so but I'm going to piss off a lot of people. I'm going to try to do it in a way that all the people benefit from my tech, not just the one percenters. If I have it my way, those are the ones that will bitch the loudest because they will lose the most. She giggled "oh yea you are going to upset the apple cart".
"Now you understand the secrecy up until now" she nodded in agreement. We took a few trips around the planet and they took some pictures.
We landed on the ship and I saw the fighters all lined up "the kits must be off duty". Everyone smiled at that as we went to my communal area, We got drinks and sat to talk.
"So what did you think of all that?" my guests smiled. I looked at them and they looked like teens in love complete with holding hands.
"I don't know about Jude but my eyes have been opened to more than one thing". She smiled and put her hand on her stomach and looked at Jude then to me. "I'm on board" she said with tears in her eyes.
I looked at Jude "Well that's one". He laughed "no captain that makes two. I'm behind you 100 percent and that's not a political answer". His wife hit him on the arm then looked at my wives who were beaming.
She smiled and put her hand on her stomach and teared up "I'm having a baby". My wives ran to her and embraced her.
I looked at Jude "I think she just had a realization," he smiled and nodded. I looked at Ann. "Do you want to know the sex?" that got me shocked looks. "You can tell already" I nodded "sex is chosen at conception so yes"
She looked at her husband "it's up to you baby". She looked from him to me and started nodding. I brought up her health data and it showed an elevated heart rate so I told her to relax. I zoomed in and found the target still labeled Viable Embryo so I clicked on it. It was big enough so when it switched to the word Female everyone saw.
Ann's blood pressure dropped and she screamed "I'm having a girl" then clapped her hands over her mouth. We all laughed as she hugged her husband.
Ann was crying now, I'm talking full out ugly cry. My wives came to me and hugged me and let them have their moment. Lisa started "do you want to know?" I looked at her "I don't care as long as they are healthy, if you want to know go find out". They were off like a bullet to the medbay.
Ann looked at me "I'm guessing they are doing the same" I just nodded. That's when I heard the screams and they came at me full tilt. "We looked, we looked" they yelled as they ran. They were jumping and crying so I calmed them down and Cora started "we are having the same as the kits, 5 and 1. One male and 5 females". Ann shook her head "the thoughts of having one makes me tired. I can't imagine having 12". We all laughed at that "why don't we call it a day there" I stood and everyone is joined me "we can pick this up in the morning" with that we retired for the evening.
My wives were waiting for me when I got out of the shower, "are you ok with mostly daughters?" Yea ok I realized it was a stupid question the minute it left my mouth. They pulled me down with kisses and hugs and we went from there.